Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-01-13
THE DAIRY.
By Gen. L. NJ. Harris, West Va.

its products; butter and cheese are tn
chief of these;with such wide field be
fore US. it will only be possible to con
slider briefly such fundamental anC
practical matters relating to the sabjec
as will be interesting and profitable tC
those who are practical farmers engag.
ed more or less in the business of dai,
rying. The farmer in laying out his
plans for deriving the greatest amount
of profit from the cultivation and use
of his land, must take into consideration
many things, such as the number of his
acres, quality of his soil, distance from
market. facilities for transportation. Sc
The man VITO owns large area of good
grazing and farming land will natural
iy turn his attention TO the production
of beef, pork, mutton, wool, grain and
winter forage.
The small farmer can almost ALWAYS
make dairying his chief pursuit, com-
bining with it fruit growing, and atten-
ton to pigs an1 poultry to limited ext
tent. In all farming the continuous
improvement rather than the exhaust
lou of the soil should be constantly held
in view, as matter of the first Import
ance. There Is no pursuit in which a
small farmer can engage. that will yield
him as great facilities for constantly
Ienriching his farm as dairying, if iutell-
gently pursued. To carry out this idea
we must turn our attention to the sys-
tenn of sOilIng. This involves the stab.
ling of your cattle every night and prot
viding succession of forage crops in
such quantities AS will enable US to feed
TO each COW good liberal ration of green
feed, night and morning; add to this a
generous ration of bran aud you will
not only get the largest return of milk,
but will build up a compost heap that
will restore TO the farm all that has
been taken from it and at the same time
reduce the consumption of grass from
your pastures during the day By about
one half. and this is practically equiva-
lent to d.ubling the area of your farm
To carry out this system it is only nee
essary to devote a few acres adjacent to
your stables, to the production of rye,
oats, or oats and peas, millet cornfodder
&c, for soiIing purposes, apply your
manure and then so order it, that you
will get two crops from it during the
soiling season. In addition to the plants
above enumerated the prickly comfrey.
is plant of special value for forage pur-
poses. 1t is the earliest of all plants,
affording good cutting by the middle
OF May, and will afford with proper care
three or four cuttings during the sum
mer and fall. 1t is grown from cuttings
of the roots and should be planted in
hills feet apart each way, and will
IL - nt
hill, each cutting. l find it very valu;
able adjunct to he system of soiling,
A sufficient portion of the land allotted
to the production of summer forage,
should be reserved for the production of
mangles for winter use, and l believe
that a supply of these for the winter
together with good hay will
render the silo superfiuous adjuEct.
All the manure you can make, above
what is called for by the portion of the
farm already referred to, should be apr
piled to portion devoted to the pro-
duction of corn or forage. 1t will al.
ways be economical to raise good crop
of oats to grind along with your corn,
which should be ground with the cob
into coarse meal. My custom is to sow
along with my oats mixture of clover,
orchard grass and tall oat grass. These
ripen together and make most excellent
hay for mich cows, if cut and cured
well, at the proper time. 1t is mix
ture that makes the very best of pas
ture for cattle.
A course of management as here out.
lined will insure the real foundation
of the dairy business. Having secured
this, the next thing to be considered is
the selection of the cow. AS it will be
understood that it is the most profitable
milk, butter and cheese product the dai-
ryman wants, we may at once exclude
all those most beautiful and excellent
breeds OF cattle, whose chief excellency
consists in their adaptation to the pro
duction of beef, such as Shorthorns, Dew
ons, Polled Angus, SC. This will re-
strict our range to the common or na
tive stock. and TO the Jerseys, Alderneys,
Ayrshires and their grades
The best choice of his cows is "a matter
Of the greatest moment to the dairyman
When it is considered that in the article
of butter there is range in annual pro-
duction of individual cows of from $50
to over 800 pounds, the Importance of g
good choice is apparent While the lat
ter figure is phenomenal, the former fig
ure will express the yield of a very large
number of COWS in use in the dairy,
while by care in selecting and attention,
it has been demonstrated that an aversge
of 800 pounds to the cow,is easily attain
able We should then seek for the COW |
that will give the largest annual yield
from given amount of feed. The dali |
rymsn will be somewhat governed in |
his choice of breeds by the disposition
he is to make of his milk. The man who
proposes to supply milk market, will
want a COW which will yield tie largest |
quantity of milk of a good quality. |
Among the common or native cattle,
there may be found many individuals
That are called deep mixers, and that
yield milk very good in quality. and the
milk man will naturally aim to stock up
With them. Bat as we should aim to
advance on present attainments, good
policy would dictate that we should
raise grades from them by crossing, ac-
eording TO our purpose. with Jerseys,
AyrshiTes, Guernseys, &c. AS large
produce of milk, of at least fair quali-
5y, the Dutch FriesiaBs probably excel.
1t is claimed for them that they are
general purpose COW, suited to the milk
dairy, as also to the production of butter,
cheese, beef, sc. speak of this breed
as one of great promise,as worthy of the
attention of dairymen, but not we'll L
enough known to justify conclusion as
10 merits as compared with other breads. !,
Being large breed and coming to ma +
,urity at an early age, all who are so sit !,
mated as to raise their calves, would do
we'll to give this breed trial. For the
outter dairy. | would, with my present
give preference to the
Channel Island particularly to Il
he Jersey and Guernsey cows These
are pre-eminently special purpose COWS.
in6 that purpose is the production of
he largest quantity and choicest quality
,f butter. The Jersey COW has been
proven to be, and accepted, as THE BUT
TER COW par excellence, and / opine
hat she will never be supplanted as a
)utter, dairy and family COW. So much